Why the Gamescom Awards is a disgrace

MWEB GameZone writes: "Developers have to fork out money to showcase their games, and they have to play to list their games on the Gamescom Awards.

Surely the running of an awards program should fall on the hosts with no burden placed on the participants. The way Gamescom is handling the awards makes it meaningless, but even worse, it will give potential customers a wrong value of the games they plan to purchase. Along with E3, Gamescom is probably the biggest annual gaming expo and what journalists and fans remenber from the show will impact the perception of the games that were showcased. Gamescom has to revisit their Gamescom Awards.

[iamnsuperman]

Well this
"So, developers have to pay to be listed and games "can't be nominated if they have been 'available' on other public events before Gamescom"
is stupid and really negates the need for awards because of such absurd rules.

But what I can't get past is that Forza Horizon 2 is nominated for best sports game. I would understand something like F1 2014 or a specific rally game since they are based upon sporting events. Forza Horizon is more akin to need for Speed. I even find it hard justifying gran turismo or forza as a sports game. They are not. We are in the territory of calling COD a sports game

[HanCilliers]

It's so absurd how they run the awards I find it hard to believe :( Regarding the Best Sports - I think they didn't have enough entries tbh.

[Mr Pumblechook]

So the entries are not based on merit but on which publishers paid money to have their games submitted. This is wrong.

Odd that some major titles that are being released this year are not on the list. It is good that this is brought to people's attention - this should be examined by the community in more detail...

[Volkama]

Forza Horizon 2 has also been playable at E3, at least by journalists. So maybe the criteria for nominations aren't so rigid.

[iamnsuperman]

The award criteria states it must not be playable to the public. E3 is not really a public event and as you say it was playable by the judges not the public

[Volkama]

Fair enough, I probably could/should have just read that before commenting :)

Still, "disgrace" seems a bit strong.

[equal_youth]

this is hilarious but in a bad way. so their getting their awards based on money and then use those awards to marked their games?

[HanCilliers]

Not entirely no. I think this is more a case of devs not submitting their games to the awards because of the ridiculous requirements

[creatchee]

In re: Forza, racing has long been considered a sport. Hell, the first sentence of the Wikipedia entry is: "Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing[1] or automobile racing) is a ****sport**** involving the racing of automobiles for competition."

Also, there was no dedicated racing game category, so sport is even more appropriate.

[CongoKyle]

100% Agree. Paying to have my game in an awards ceremony? Get out.

[tinynuggins]

The idea of paying money to have your game CONSIDERED is nothing new. The academy awards and golden globes have been doing it since they started. People need to stop pretending that this is an issue.

[Avernus]

Paying anything to get your game nominated should tell everyone how much of a joke these awards are. The whole criteria in general...

[HanCilliers]

I agree, I also don't understand why more journalists aren't making a thing out of it. Everyone's just posting the nominees and that's that. Seems it's more the gamers who are raising the question regarding its legitimacy as an award listing.

[plut0nash]

Sounds like this is for bragging rights really, nothing else.